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Moving to a new home can be stressful for your dog. Advance planning, patience and affection can help your dog adjust quickly to his new home.

Before the Move Prepare your pet for the move a few weeks before the actual day. Pack over a period of time and try to maintain your pet’s normal routine. Buy a carrier that will allow your pet to sit and lie comfortably inside. If your dog is not accustomed to a pet carrier or crate, take the time to get your dog used to the new carrier before the move.

If the trip to the new home is more than 2 hours, use a carrier that holds food and water. Clip your dog’s nails to protect against hooking in carrier door, holes, and other crevices.

As soon as you know your new address and telephone number, get a pet ID tag with the new information on it. Have your dog wear both ID tags right before and after the move to ensure that if your dog gets lost, you can be located. If your dog is micro chipped make sure that your new address details are updated on the Petrac Database http://www.avidplc.com/pet-owners/

During the Move On moving day, place your dog in a safe, quiet place, such as the bathroom so that he cannot escape. Make sure to provide food and water for your dog. Place a large sign on the door that says, DO NOT ENTER, and make sure that friends and professionals movers are aware that the room is off-limits.

Assign a family member to be in charge of the dog to ensure that he does not get left behind during a hectic moving day. Carry recent photographs of your dog in case he gets lost.

Traveling by Car If you’re traveling by car and your dog enjoys car rides, you may want to get him accustomed to a restraining harness. Don’t let your dog stick his head out the window, he can be injured by particles of flying debris. If your dog doesn’t like riding in cars, consult your Vet about behaviour modification or medication that might reduce the stress of travel. It may be best to use a carrier to ensure you and your dog’s safety. Never leave your dog alone in a parked vehicle in warm weather as the temperature can rise quickly and cause heat stroke. A dog left alone in the car can also encourage theft from pet thieves (this has become all too common lately). Never put your dog in the boot of a car, the open bed of a pickup trick, or the storage area of a moving van. These places can cause injury to your dog in the case of a sudden stop.

MOVING house can be one of the most stressful and expensive life events. But there are ways to take the pain out of moving day and reduce the stress on your wallet..

Here are our Top Ten Tips-:

1 Declutter Use moving house as your opportunity to get rid of anything you don’t absolutely need. It’ll save you time packing, and unloading, and it’s good for the soul, too! As well as selling clothes, shoes and furniture online or giving them away to friends/charity shops, some charities will come and collect bulky, hard-to-shift items like furniture to save you paying to have them removed.

2 Pick your day Moving at weekends or over Bank Holidays is not advised. Not only will the roads be busier, you may find removal firms are booked up or that their fees are higher. Weekdays are preferable.3 Money-saving If you’re looking to move without spending a fortune. To get a rock bottom quote shop around get at least 3 quotes and don,t be afraid to tell company A that Company B is Cheaper.Offer your and family and friends labour if you can carry out your move with just a "Man and Van"you will save a fortune (Porters cost around £100 a head per day more if it is a long distance move as overnight accommodation must be factored into the price you pay.

If your move is relatively small (1 room Flat,Studio Bedsit) ask about groupage, your stuff is transported along with other's. This can slash moving costs by around 40 per cent because your home contents will be transported along a scheduled delivery route, filling up any empty space in our vans.4 Insurance Make sure your removals firm covers your possessions in transit – including any valuable items. Check the details of their insurance policy, as sometimes it won’t cover items that were not packed by their own employees. Jewellery and other small, precious items should ideally be packed and moved with you.

5 Packing Long distances and furniture stacked together heightens the risk of damage. Consider paying your removal company to do some of the packing for you, particularly for bulky items like white goods and furniture or fragile items. It might seem like an extravagant luxury, but they know what they’re doing, and it can be a big time saver too.

6 Access If you live on a narrow street or a main road you’ll need to think about parking. It may be worth asking the neighbours if they could park elsewhere on moving day, and organise the removal firm a parking permit if there are restrictions. It is also worth thinking about access at your destination as well. The last thing you want to do is annoy your new neighbours on day one.

7 Babysitters Children who aren’t big enough to help, animals and home removals don’t mix. Offload kids, cats and dogs on kind grandparents, uncles, aunts and friends for the day, and preferably for the night too, whilst you organise and co-ordinate the unloading, unpacking and get settled in. If you have cats, make sure their address is written on their collar, in case they get disorientated in their new neighbourhood.

8 Admin Take final meter readings on the day you leave and notify your suppliers. Give your employer, children’s schools and the council your change of address, as well as your bank, mobile phone provider and any other service provider.

9 Moving day kit You should have some emergency supplies at hand for moving day. Tea bags, milk, cups, a kettle and some chocolate Hob Nobs aren’t luxuries, they are essential! Pack a change of clothes and some toiletries for the first night, plus a bottle of celebratory wine. There’s no way you’ll want to cook, so order a takeaway. The Hungry House app is great if you’re new to the area, because it will find every takeaway near you, and lets you order via the app.

10 Security Once in the property, get the locks changed. This is a sensible precautionary measure as you never know who might have been given a spare key in the past.

Moving house is reputed to be among the top three most stressful things the average human being goes through during life. The most stressful thing is bereavement, the second is divorce and the third is moving house.

Sometimes, the top two experiences swap around in the stress polls, but always moving house comes in as a strong contender for third place.So what, you might say. Well, I have moved house more than seventy times during my life and I suspect I will move once or twice more before I finally shuffle off my mortal coil. This could account for my reputation for being slightly mad. I have learned one or two useful lessons along the way which might help to pave the road for those of you who are considering the Big M.

The first thing is to spring clean thoroughly. This sounds poor advice since you are about to vacate the family home and it is gong to get filthy in the process, but in fact if you turn out your belongings, throw away the stuff you no longer wish to live with, and clean the furniture in the process, your job at the other end will be far easier.Whilst cleaning, organize any collections you might have into boxes so the things which are not urgently required when you get to your destination can be stored somewhere, in that way you can unpack them at leisure.

Label everything clearly on the side and the top and instruct your packers or removal company that boxes or cartons must be stacked at destination with the label showing.

Mark your boxes for whatever room you want them in at destination, such as Dining Room, Bedroom 2, Kitchen etc. If you are really efficient, go one step further and number the boxes according to the priority in which they will be needed.

Unearth carrying cages for your pets and make sure they are clean and ready for use. Items which are not fragile or too heavy can be packed into drawers.

There is no point in the removal company stacking empty drawers, so make use of them. Remember not to put anything precious in open drawers, though.Pick two or three DVDs which the children like and tape them to the side of the television or the top of the DVD player. When you get to your new home, set up the television and DVD player straight away, so the children are amused and happy while you deal with the chaos of organizing boxes and setting up a working kitchen.

Packing a few emergency amusements for the children can buy you a whole lot of available time for the important stuff in your new home.Pack an emergency kit for your arrival. This kit should include:The kettle, plus cups, coffee and tea bags, can opener and corkscrew, cutlery, sugar, milk and emergency snack food. If you have pets, remember you will need their dishes straight away.A separate box containing enough linen for the family beds for that first night.Towels soap, shampoo and toothpaste.Hot water bottles (sometimes new houses are cold until the central heating gets going).Any medicines that need to be taken on a daily basis.

Pack some family clothes and other essentials as you would for a two day holiday, into suitcases. That way you have emergency clothes for everyone until you get around to unpacking into wardrobes.Pack valuables such as jewelry into bags that travel with you, do not entrust them to anyone else.

The same goes for all of the family documentation that is absolutely vital, such as passports, medical cards, etc. If you have been efficient enough to complete an inventory, remember to keep it with you.Try not to do what I did once, arrive at your new home hours after the removal vehicle, and then have to pay an enormous fee for extra time because the removal staff could not gain access.

Remember also not to bury the keys to your new home at the bottom of a packing crate.

Check you have all the keys you need, such as garage, garden stores, boiler house, or roof space.Do not pack the essential cleaning materials you will need to spruce up the house you are vacating. You will need to clean it for the new owners, so remember to set aside the vacuum cleaner and other necessary cleaning items such as cloths, spray polish and bleach until the last moment. I always donate to the new owner a clean towel, new soap in the bathroom, and new toilet rolls in all the bathrooms.

I have always managed to remain friends with the people who buy my houses and I am sure that is the reason!Some people display the most revolting behavior when moving house.

I bought a home in the South of England once and the day I moved in, I disturbed the ex owner while she was busy stripping the apple trees of every single piece of fruit. She and her husband were packing them into a large box and muttering something about how they had grown them so why shouldn’t they take them. Why indeed. I suspect she was prepared to make herself ill eating apples rather than leave a single one for someone else.

Another lady decided to leave behind all the furniture she had agreed to sell to other people, in the house after she had moved! She left instructions for me about who was to have what, and when she would be coming to collect the money they were going to pay for it! She said it was easier for her that way. Aaaagh!

In England I believe it is actually illegal to leave a house without a single working light bulb when you vacate a house, but this does not stop some people from removing every single one! Stunning isn’t it! I am one of those people who leave behind quite a lot of comforts for new owners and I also leave my houses spotlessly clean. I always think how lovely it must be to enter a new home smelling of lavender and pine disinfectant, because I always manage to inherit disgustingly dirty houses, with filthy toilets and about twenty years of dust, grease and grime clinging to every room.I must be house hunting in the wrong circles.

Set aside a room for your pets in which to recover. Set aside another room for yourself in which to recover. Enjoy your new home.

This is the time of year when family and friends get together for the holiday season,the logistics involved can be a challenge.For some this will involve a trip to Ikea,Homebase or the local Auction house for a large enough table to seat your guests and other essentials like sofa beds and extra chairs.

And so for shoppers who have come away with far more than they went in for – and items that are far larger than they envisioned, a regular issue presents itself – ‘how on earth do I get this lot home?!’

Whilst families that may have thought-ahead with the purchase of their sensible estate car, there is always the issue of people + shopping to deal with, which will require a tiring routine of endless re-arranging. Meanwhile, young city dwellers who opted for a speedy, compact car that fits into any small parking space, for them, there is seemingly no other option but to head back to the check out and enquire about a home delivery method.

So instead of incurring hefty in store sub-contractor delivery fees contact us,we offer three levels of service in this regard-:

1.Our driver can meet you at an appointed time and load up your purchases,drive them to your home and off load them into your house.

2.We can pick you up from your home, drive you to the store,wait while you shop (max 2 hours) drive you and your goods back home then get everything into your house.

3. Give us your shopping list or place an online order for collection with the store you then sit back and relax.While we do the rest your, purchases will be delivered to your door at a time of your choosing.

We even offer an Flat Pack Furniture Assembly Service at an hourly rate.

Contact us now for a no obligation quote on any of the above services.

At present we only offer these services in the Greater London Area(inside the M25) but we hope to roll out the service Nationwide in the near future.